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MANILA, Philippines – After 9 years as Cebu governor and a 6-month suspension, Gwendolyn “Gwen” Garcia is now officially a congresswoman.

Garcia was proclaimed representative of the 3rd district of Cebu on Thursday, May 16, putting her back in power after Malacañang suspended her for grave abuse of authority last December.

The suspended governor beat her rival, Liberal Party (LP) candidate Pinamungajan Mayor Geraldine Yapha by just nearly 2,000 votes. Sun Star Cebu reports that the final, official count was 105,424 votes for Garcia and 103,440 for Yapha.

Garcia told reporters, “This is the most difficult political battle I faced.”

Accompanying Garcia during her proclamation in the Cebu capitol were daughter, lawyer Christina Garcia-Frasco, and son-in-law Liloan Mayor Duke Frasco.

Other members of the Garcia family are not faring as well as Gwen.

Besides Pablo John, their father 2nd District Rep Pablo “Pabling” Garcia was behind LP’s Willy Caminero in his re-election bid, based on partial, unofficial results via the Rappler Mirror Server. Caminero is leading with 84,151 votes while the elder Garcia has 77,190 as of 3:46 pm of Thursday.

Besides the administrative case, Gwen also faces a graft case before the Sandiganbayan over the provincial government’s allegedly anomalous purchase of the Balili Estate for P98.9 million in 2008, which the Office of the Ombudsman found to be mostly underwater.

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